Tom Price New HHS Secretary PowerHouse

Tom Price New HHS secretary

WASHINGTON — In choosing Representative Tom Price of Georgia to be his health secretary, President-elect Donald J. Trump has signaled an undiminished determination to repeal President Obama’s signature domestic achievement, the Affordable Care Act, and replace it with a health law that would be far less comprehensive.

And Mr. Trump is handing Republicans and their base voters what they have clamored for since the Affordable Care Act became law in 2010 — a powerful force to reverse course.

Republicans were pleased.

“I can tell you where we’re going to start: with a process to repeal and replace Obamacare,” Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, said Tuesday.

Mr. Price, an orthopedic surgeon from Atlanta’s affluent northern suburbs, was one of the first lawmakers to draft a full replacement for the Affordable Care Act. His proposal would take health care in a fundamentally different direction, away from mandated coverage and care and toward a free-market approach, with fewer consumer protections and more freedoms for doctors.